If you have unprotected sex with a person who is having sex with someone else, you are at extraordinarily high risk for getting venereal diseases, that can make you sick and even kill you. A recent report from Johns Hopkins shows that 25% of girls between 12 and 19 who show up at school based and sexually transmitted disease clinics are infected with chlamydia (1), a venereal disease that causes infertility, terrible pelvic infections, horrible urinary symptoms, joint pains, a sore throat, a cough, heart attacks and even death.

Previous studies that show that 50% of young people with more than 3 sexual partners a year have sexually transmissible diseases and 40% of sexually active adolescent females in a large American city have the venereal diseases, chlamydia or gonorrhea (2).

The most common causes of burning on urination and discomfort when the bladder is full are venereal diseases (3). If you feel like you have to urinate all the time, have discomfort when your bladder is full, get up in the middle of the night to urinate, have spotting between periods, feel like there is a hair in your urinary tube or have unexplained pelvic pain, you may have a venereal disease that can be cured with antibiotics. You should get urine and vaginal cultures and tests for venereal diseases. If none is found, you are sexually active and you have symptoms, both you and your partner still should be treated with the newer erythromycins or tetracyclines for several weeks. If you still have symptoms, you need a thorough evaluation by a physician trained in evaluating urinary tract infections.

VENEREAL DISEASES DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE SYMPTOMS: At least 50 percent of men and women with more than 3 partners a year have at least one venereal disease. If you have unprotected sex with three partners at random, you have more than a 90 percent chance of having a venereal disease, even if you have no symptoms. Researchers at the University of Washington report that 8.6% of teen age girls in the Seattle area are infected with a venereal disease called chlamydia (1). Over a period of 2 years in one large American city, almost 40 percent of sexually active adolescent females had the venereal diseases, chlamydia or gonorrhea (2). The most common cause of burning on urination in both men and women is a venereal disease (3) and burning on urination usually starts after making love (4). You can have a venereal disease and have no symptoms: 1.1% of Japanese men, 6 percent of English, 9 percent of Danish men (5) and 5 percent of American men are infected (6) and many have no symptoms whatever. All people with a feeling like they have to urinate all the time, an urgency to urinate when they have to go, frequent urination and getting up in the middle of the night to urinate/ should have their urine checked and cultured for infection. Other symptoms of venereal diseases include vaginal or penile itching, spotting between periods, infertility, vaginal itching, burning or odor or no symptoms at all. If their urine cultures grow bacteria, they should be treated with appropriate antibiotics. However, most of the time, urine cultures do not grow bacteria, so your doctor should order tests to check for venereal diseases. If none is found, you are sexually active and you have symptoms, both you and your partner should be treated with the newer erythromycins, such as clarithromycin, azithromycin and dirithromycin. If you still have symptoms, you need a evaluation by a physician trained in evaluating urinary tract infections.

WHY TREATMENT FOR CHLAMYDIA OFTEN FAILS: Major problems in treating the most common venereal diseases, chlamydia, mycoplasma and ureaplasma, are that infected people are often not willing to take their medication for the full treatment or they go out and become reinfected. Once these infections are allowed to persist, they are extraordinarily difficult to treat and may require months of continuing antibiotic treatment. A recent study from the State University of New York showed that only one venereal disease patient in four takes medication as prescribed (1a). Another study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta showed that almost all women who still had chlamydia one month after treatment continued their high-risk behavior and were reinfected by new or old partners (1b). Usually your first symptoms from chlamydia, ureaplasma and mycoplasma are burning on urination, a feeling that you have to urinate all the time and terrible discomfort when the bladder is full. Your chances of a cure are high If you are treated when you have only these symptoms; but, after many months, the infection can spread to other parts of your body and make you sick or damage nerves, joints and muscles. The bacteria can cause uterine infections, brain and nerve damage with symptoms of lack of coordination, headaches and passing out (1c), red itchy eyes and blindness (2), terrible joint and muscle pains and arthritis (3), spotting between periods, uterine infections (4), testicular pain, a chronic sore throat, asthma, coughing, burning eyes and nose, bloody diarrhea, anal itching and bleeding, muscle pain, kidney stones (5), asthma (6), heart attacks, (7), strokes (8), cerebral palsy (9), premature birth (10) and much more. If you feel sick and your doctor is unable to make a diagnosis because all laboratory tests and cultures fail to reveal a cause, you could be infected with mycoplasma, chlamydia or ureaplasma and be cured only by taking long-acting erythromycins or tetracyclines for many months.

About the Author: Gabe Mirkin, MD

Sports medicine doctor, fitness guru and long-time radio host Gabe Mirkin, M.D., brings you news and tips for your healthful lifestyle. A practicing physician for more than 50 years and a radio talk show host for 25 years, Dr. Mirkin is a graduate of Harvard University and Baylor University College of Medicine. He is board-certified in four specialties: Sports Medicine, Allergy and Immunology, Pediatrics and Pediatric Immunology. The Dr. Mirkin Show, his call-in show on fitness and health, was syndicated in more than 120 cities.
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